Jeff Bezos is welcoming customers to the homepage today of Amazon today with news that the Kindle is back in stock. His cover note (.pdf) on the online seller’s site links not only to the company’s annual letter to shareholders, which is all about the electronic reader, but also boasts of the product’s more than 2,000 reviews to date.

Apparently, the Kindle is living up to its hype – at least in terms of sales.

As I reported earlier this month, I finally caved to the groaning weight of manuscript pages and traded paper for a Sony Reader. And after a couple of weeks, I would say I qualify as a convert, but not an evangelist, for the whole idea of digital book.

Advantages first — it’s light, easy to use, and quick to download Word documents and PDFs. While I have yet to crack the manual (reading directions is not my strong suit), it is straightforward enough to figure out how to pop up the font size, browse through a selection of downloaded files and bookmark a page. I am currently carrying five books around with me and I love the ease of dropping one, slim, leather-bound gadget into my bag. The cover is a nice touch, too, by the way. Earlier versions of the Reader felt more like a PDA, or a Blackberry on steroids. For the book lover, it’s nice to open an actual cover. For the multi-tasker, it’s great to have more than one option of reading material when you are stuck at the DMV or waiting for a meeting to start.

The biggest downside for me is still the screen — harder to read than a computer. Another glitch happens almost every time you hit the “next page” button. It flips quickly enough, but often repeats the first sentence or two of the previous page on top of the new page, something that can grow annoying rapidly. I have yet to figure out how to alter the screen’s brightness (yes, I realize that the manual must cover this but I have not gotten that far).

I have started carrying the Reader with me wherever I am and conducting my own market research — looking either for validation that it is the next iPod or evidence that the paper book will never cease to exist. From bankers to bloggers, the initial reaction is always interest. The more technically inclined tinker with it a bit and scan a page or two; the less digital tend to examine the packaging. The overall response — mostly positive, but no one seems inclined to rush out and buy one.

All the opinions together are probably best summed up by 800-CEO-Read’s Todd Sattersten who was in Austin last week and had a few minutes to fiddle with the Reader over breakfast and discussion of his just completed Portfolio book, The 100 Best Business Books of All Time. “They just aren’t there with it yet,” says Todd, whose office holds both an earlier version of the Reader and a Kindle.

As for me, I’m a convert for my work reading, but not sure I will ever feel the urge to download War and Peace. The skeptics say I’ll change my tune on an overseas flight. But anyone who has been stranded without a power cord knows, the pages of a book never need a battery.